Gospel—Mike Campbell
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Want to sing #16 Whosoever cometh must not delay Now the door is open. Enter while you may #16 Whosoever here is shall shout to sound. Send the blessed hiding all the world around.
The joyful news, wherever man is found, will make.
Come whatsoever man, whatsoever well, send the proclamation over there, and hill tis the loving Father calls the wander home.
Who celebrated?
Who's?
Whosoever will make God, whosoever will, whosoever will stand the proclamation over hill and hill.
It's a loving father.
If you'll take your Bible, turn to the Book of Exodus. Book of Exodus, chapter 14.
Exodus chapter 14.
The thought that's kind of on my mind is basically the very last phrase that you find in verse 13 but forsake of connection and context. Will read starting at verse one down to verse 13.
Verse one And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn, and they can't before high, high Roth between migdo and the sea over against fails upon before ye shall encamp by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, they are entangled in the land, the wilderness have shut them in. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he shall follow after them, And I will be honored upon Pharaoh, and upon all his.
That the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. And they did so. And it was told the king of Egypt, that the people fled in the heart of favor, and of his servants was turned against the people. And they said, Why have we done this? That we have let Israel go from serving us. And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with him. And he took 600 chosen Chariots, all the Chariots of Egypt.
And the captains over every one of them. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and.
Pursued after the children of Israel. And the children of Israel went out with a high hand. But the Egyptians pursued after them all the horses and Chariots of Pharaoh and his horsemen and his armies, and overtook them. And camping by the scene beside Pahai al Roth before Belsephan, when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them.
And they were so afraid, and the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord.
And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in this wilderness? Wherefore Hazel dealt us with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt. It's not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians, who have been better for us to serve the Egyptians, that then that we should die in the wilderness.
And Moses said unto the people, Fear not.
Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he shall show you today. For the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall see them again no more forever. And that last little phrase is kind of what's on my mind this evening.
You shall see them again, no more forever. But before we look at the scripture list, mountain word, prayer, our Father we acknowledge.
Each time we come to present the gospel.
Our great weakness, our great inability to through any kind of human persuasion techniques or storytelling or eloquence, to cause one soul to.
Receive Christ. We know it solely in only of thee, that salvation belongeth unto the Lord.
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And so we acknowledge our weakness and we pray and ask that the Spirit of God would do that work which he alone can do. And that is to convict the hearts of men and women, show them their that my tongue doesn't race ahead of my brain and my tongues get my tongue get tangled.
But most importantly, that in all things, that precious one who died for my salvation, that he would receive all the honor and glory and praise, for only the Lord Jesus is worthy of such, and we pray this in his precious name, Amen.
Many years ago in the days of the railroads, when cars started to intersect the railway lines, they realized there was a problem because at night time it was difficult to see the train. And So what they first did is they would in certain intersections they knew were busy and difficult that they would build these little shacks and there would be a little, you know, lever that they would raise and lower to as a barricade. And there would be a man and his job was.
To listen for the train and when the train would come, he would come out, lower the barricade and wave his lamp.
You wave this lamp. Well, one day a gentleman named Sandy, who was his job to do this, he kind of got a little dozy. You know, he sort of like that. Just he didn't fall quite asleep, but he just kept drowsing off. And all of a sudden he heard the train and that drowsy state. So it clicked on up, grabbed his lamp and he got out and he was waving his lamp and he could see the car keep coming and coming. And he starts to wave his lamp in larger, more exaggerated motions.
And the car keeps coming and coming, so finally Sandy has to jump out of the way of the car.
And the car crashes to the barricade and hits the uncommon train. Well, of course, in order to understand what happened, they took Sandy to court and they put him on the witness stand. And they said, Sandy, did you get your Lantern and wave it? And he said, yes, your honor, I did. I waved it and waved it, waved it. But the train, the car kept coming. And by that time I had to jump all the way. It was too late. Well, they awarded that it was probably driver negligence. Maybe they were sleepy or whatever, or didn't.
See him. And so they let Sandy go.
But afterwards, a friend said he saw he was visibly shaken. He said, why are you shaking? It's all over. They declared that you weren't at fault, so you should be okay. And he said, well, he said, I was shaking all through the trial because I was hoping they wouldn't ask me one question. And he said, what was that question? He said, I hope they didn't ask me if the Lantern was lit. You see, Sandy and his drowsiness in his hurry never lit the Lantern. So it really was his fault that the car didn't stop, because there was.
Nothing for them to see, just a dark Lantern on a dark road and a guy standing there waving it that they couldn't see it till it was too late. You know, today we have a lot of that in kind of a similar way going on. We see men waving these dark lanterns of their good works that supposedly tell you it's OK, go your way, do what you're doing right now. It'll be all well. But all that at all that time men are heading to destruction. They're heading to an uncommon, you know, uncommon train.
But they waved the lanterns are good works or they waved the Lantern their religion to say hey come on, just come to church or do these things that we do and all will be right. And all the time men are heading towards that train leading to their destruction. You see the only thing that has light, the only true light that will lead men to the truth, to the gospel is the Lord Jesus Christ Jesus himself said I am the light of the world.
If any man fall after me, he shall not be a darkness, but shall have the light of life.
And yet we know that men like to wave their religion. They like to wave their good works. They like to waive all kinds of things as a substitute for the true light. Well, today we see in this text a group of people who are facing their final day. They didn't know it at the time when they traveled after the Egyptians. They didn't realize that this was going to be the last day that they would live. But Moses declares to the children of Israel, who are kind of concerned.
At this point that here's this great army, the soup, who's behind him to say these Egyptians you see today, you'll see them again, no more forever.
So we want to look at why is it he can say that? Why is he so confident saying that you're not going to see these people? And I want to know this eight things that I think that we see in this passage. And this will be the we will look at the Bible verses, but you might want to keep the finger there. So we'll be coming back all the time to this passage here.
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And I think there's eight lessons this passage teaches us that, not only about the Egyptians here and about their last day upon earth, but also about you and about me and things that are representative, important to us as we consider the gospel truth, the true life that men need to see. And so the first lesson that I would consider is that today could be your last.
Now think about the moment within the Egyptians woke up. Did they say Hallelujah, I'm going to die today?
It's a great day, can't wait to the final death blow comes or whatever. They'll even stay. They didn't get up and do that.
They thought it was just going to be another day. You know, maybe they would go on maneuvers or do whatever they do. You know, maybe they'll have time to be with their loved ones. Maybe they'll have time to have a good meal. They just another day. Oh, got to go. Farrell tells us that we got to go on maneuver, so here we go. But they didn't think of it as any big thing because, as I said, Egypt was the superpower of their day. I mean, they had the better army. They looked as the at the.
Of Israel as weak, ineffectual upstarts, that it would be an easy job for them to go in and just kill them all.
They didn't realize that, as Moses says, that you shall see them again no more forever. They thought, piece of cake, you know, easiest thing that we ever did is to go wipe out these Israelites. But they found out.
That what's their last day? So what about you, dear friend? Do you realize that today could be your last day upon this planet, your last day of life, and that you would go off into your eternal destiny, whatever that might be? The Bible's pretty clear about that. Both not thyself and tomorrow. For thou knowest not what a day may bring forth, as James said to those men that said that we are going to go to such and such a city and we're going to continue for a year. We're going to.
Cell and get gained, James said to them. Where as you know not what is on the Morrow, for what is your life?
It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away. You see, people think they got their life all planned out, all thought out, but there's one thing they often forget, and that's God, the one who's really in control of all of our lives.
And those people in the book of James, they plant without God. They had it all figured out, what they were going to do. But James said you forgot a very important part in your figuring, and that's the Lord.
In the course of Scripture is replete with all kinds of examples of the shortness of human existence.
None of us here knows if we'll wake up in the morning, knows if we'll draw another breath, knows if we'll see another sunset, knows if we'll enjoy another fellowship with with other people. We don't know that.
And that's why the Bible is clear that behold now, Now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.
David said there's what, a step between me and death. Dear friend, Do you realize this evening that there's a step between you and Dad? You realize that this could be the last moment. We don't like to think of that because we want to think that we have these long lives and they can go on forever. Especially, you know, when you're young, you think, oh, I don't have to worry about eternity because I got years.
God says.
Whereas you don't know what will be on tomorrow or what is your life. It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then it finishes away. These men got up and they didn't realize that this was the last day that they would ever hold your children. It was the last day that they would enjoy good meal. It was the last day for them.
But friends, we don't like to think of that, but we need to get that mindset to realize that today could be the last day. You know, the sad thing is people do all kinds of foolish stuff to try to extend their life instead of following what the Scriptures tells us. This is a certain way that we can have everlasting life. I mean, John 316 says that whosoever believeth in him shall have everlasting life.
That's simple, that's direct, that's the promise of God, and yet men will try every other technique.
Than to believe what the scripture said you know the latest thing that's out there is a man named Doctor Ray Kurzweil who works for Google he's a big scientist he has all kinds of patents and things he preaches something called the singularity and someone asked him one time do you believe in God and he was his response was not yet because Ray Kurzweil believes that he will be God one day he believes humanity is become God because.
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Similarity is supposed to be this melting of man and human consciousness in the machines and therefore we can live forever. And that might sound good to the ordinary human, but the problem is they forgot one thing where what's the point in the man wants to die, but after this the judgment.
That God has declared that because of sin there is death and you can do all kinds of fancy things to try to extend your life, but it's God that has control as to the day your eternity begins and not you.
But people think that that's going to be the latest craze. Men will become immortal. In fact, in 2011, Time magazine published 2045, the year man becomes immortal. Of course, now they say because of technology, it's probably going to be 20-30 something that may will be coming more. But once again, all that they're hoping on this technology, they're hoping on these things when the Bible tells us the simple and clear us and most certain way to eternal life.
If you'll just receive God's blessed Son who died on the cross for you, that He took your place, He bared the price that you deserve, He bared the punishment that you deserved upon himself, that you would just realize that it wasn't just for the sins of the world that Jesus thought it was because of your sin.
Because of my sin that he died there in the tree.
But men want to chase all these fantasies in vain hopes for their everlasting life, not realizing that today could be their last. Now I heard the tale of a young soldier who is on furlough.
And the young soldier had to head back to the train to get, you know, on the train. So he would go to his deployment. And he was walking down the street. It was snowing. He was carrying his duffel, you know, walking down the street. He had several miles to walk to get to the range of the train station. He had no drive. And so he's walking, and all of a sudden, this man pulls up to him, a businessman who was visiting in the area, who owned business interest in the area which this young soldier lived in.
And so.
This man stops, has the window rolled down, says hey, son to you need a ride somewhere. You know, I see it's snowing out and you got that heavy duffel on your shoulder. And he said, well.
I need to go up to the train station, which is a few miles down the road. I would love a ride if that's OK. And so, so the man said, sure, come on in. He says, no sense you walking out in the snow like that. So he put his duffel bag in the back seat, sat in the front and they rode for a little way. They started to have conversation, you know, just chit chatting about things. And finally, the young man said to the older businessman, He said, Sir, He said before the drive ends and the train station's coming close.
Another mile or so, he said. There is something I have to tell you.
He said, I'm a Christian and he said, I want to share with you Jesus Christ. And at that moment, the older man, the businessman, became limited. He said shut up. He said, my wife all the time is bugging me to get saved. She's always saying, saying these gospel things to me and I don't want to hear from you.
And the soldier said, well, sorry, I wasn't trying to offend you, but he said I love Christ and I just wanted to share with you.
While he drove for silence the rest of the way, the train station and the businessman realized, well, hey, this young man's probably going off to die somewhere and I treated him like Dirk. So when they pulled up, the older businessman said, wait a minute. He said, I need to apologize to you. He said, I just been bothered because my wife all the time is telling the gospel to me and.
I just don't want to hear it. And he said, I'm sorry for yelling at you. I know that you're putting your life on the line for your country and you might die in some battle, he said. I won't leave it like this.
Well, the soldier said, well, thank you. He said, that's great. He said, son, is there anything I can do for you before you go? And he said, well, I don't really need anything, but I would love to have an opportunity to share the gospel with you. Well, the older man relented and he said, OK, go ahead.
So that young soldier got his spot, a lot of stuff, a bag and shared the gospel with that old man. And the man came to Christ and the man was so excited. He said, I can't wait to get home to tell my wife that I'm saved. She's been after me all these years. Tell me I need to hear the gospel, get saved. And now I can tell her. You see, was so excited. And he gave the soldier his card, his business card, and he said, when you get back from your deployment, say I want you to look me up.
And the soldier promised he would and he said, I'll be praying for you and and they parted ways. Soldier got on this train, went to his deployment and.
You know, two years later he came back to town. He lived in that area.
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So he walked to the door.
Knocked on it. That was the address in the card. And the lady came out, older lady, and she said, can I help you? And he said yes. He said, I met this man a few years ago and he pulled the car out of his box and he said he gave me this car you see here. I'd love to see him and talk to him. And at that point the older lady started to cry and he said, well, sorry man, I didn't mean to stress you. And she was crying because.
That man was her husband.
And she said, all I know is that two years ago he dropped somebody off at a train station and on his way home from the train station, he slid and went over a bank into his dad. And she said, young man, she said, I'm a believer in Christ. And she said, all these years I've wept because my husband's lost.
He's on his way to hell.
He said, ma'am, he said, if you let me in, he said I have a wonderful story to share with you that your husband's not lost, that he's been saved. And of course he had the opportunity to share that story. But you see, that man was fortunate he got it right before he died because that same evening he went off into eternity. Dear friend, what if you go off until eternity tonight? Have you made it right with God?
Have you made a decision to receive crimes? This could be your last day. You don't know. I don't know.
So we have to be careful when we think that we can just another day of a long stretch of countless years.
Because today could be your last. Well, I better move on. Let's look at #2 Second thing I suggest is that opportunities will vanish.
Now consider for a moment what these Egyptians saw.
These men in this army saw what God did through Moses. They saw the rivers turning into blood and the infestment of frogs and the hail that came down and killed all the cattle out in the fields. They saw that they heard about this man Moses, telling Pharaoh, you need to let my people go, that there is one true God and he is saying that you need to let them go. They saw all these things. They saw literally miracles happen.
And yet.
Didn't delete, Of course. It's not miracles that people need to see anyway. It's the word of God. That's what you know, Abraham told the rich man. The rich man said, well, Abraham, can't you just send Lazarus to my brothers? And if they saw that miracle, they'd get saved. And Abraham still knows they have the word of God, and that's sufficient. That's what they need.
So they had opportunities to to see the truth and to understand that there was one true God. In fact, the Lord says in verse four, And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he shall follow after them, and I will be honored upon Pharaoh and noticing upon all his host that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord.
So God hadn't listened for them, and yet they did not heed it. They didn't listen.
In fact, in the story about the hail that came down, it said that he that feared the Lord among the servants took their cattle in, that he that regarded not the word of the Lord kept their cattle and and themselves out in the fields and so forth, and they paid the price. They understood that God had a message for their soul, but they went blindly.
And blithely until their eternal destiny.
Dear friend, tonight God has a message for your soul.
It's a message of judgment to come. It's also a message of love and grace and mercy. The message of judgment is to come is that God wants you to escape it. He doesn't want to bring His wrath down upon any person in this room. It says that God is long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. God's great love was to send His Son to make it possible that he could forgive sin.
Because without that sacrifice, sin could not have been forgiven.
Sin could not have been wiped away, but it was only because of Jesus Christ and his shed blood that God can offer to you, and He offered to me a glorious forgiveness and a wonderful redemption.
That's the message, that's why we're here to preach it. That's the message that people don't want to hear because either A, they love their pleasures too much or B, they are deceived by false teachers because it says Satan likes to blind the minds of men unless the glorious light of the gospel should shine unto them. Sometimes the reasons why people reject, but the question is if today could be your last and your opportunity to accept Christ could end tonight.
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And as we'll see later.
There's memory in hell, and you may remember this moment.
When somebody got up and told you there was a God that loved you and he sent his Son to die for you, and you could have escaped the judgment if you would just trust him. But you sat in the audience and you said no.
How sad that would be.
Kind of like an old woman who lived in a cottage not far from Balmoral Castle, where Queen Victoria was vacation. And if so, woman was on in the outs with her neighbors. They had gossip about her, she was angry about it, and she was just kind of mad at the whole world. Well, one day she hears knock at the door and the old woman ignores it.
And then the person keeps knocking. She says probably my stupid neighbors have been gossip about me wanting to come in to, you know, try to get something from me, maybe tea or maybe sugar, whatever. Not going to let him in person kept knocking and she finally yelled at knock away until doomsday. I'm not letting you in.
Well then I can start.
And she was quite pleased with herself that she shield away one of her neighbors until she found out the next day. It was Queen Victoria who had a habit of visiting people in the area and the Queen was outside of her door knocking to get in and she refused entrance.
Christ is standing tonight offering you His precious love and salvation. Will you refuse Him? Will you just go your own way, do your own thing, Go off into eternity thinking?
Everything's fine.
You know the dark Lantern of your good works. Everything's fine, All's well so far.
You find out it's eternally too late.
Well, I have to kind of keep going here because I'm only part three and I have eight points. So all right, so we looked at so far today could be your last and then opportunities will vanish. The next thing I want us to notice is that self-confidence leads to ruin. Look, if you will, at Exodus 14 and verse 9.
Excess 14, verse nine it says. But the Egyptians pursued after them all the horses and the Chariots of Pharaoh and his horsemen and his armies, and overtook them in camping by the sea beside Pie, High, high Roth, and before Beelzebub.
So all these men, great warriors.
Rushing to their death.
God says you shall see them again, no more forever.
And as I said, they men don't go into battle thinking, oh boy, we're going to lose this one. It's not going to be good. We're probably all going to die. Men go into battle thinking that they have a chance to win. And certainly they thought they had a chance to win because they were the best army of their day.
They were probably pretty certain this was going to be the easiest battle they ever fought against these Israelites. No contest. They weren't going in there thinking, hey, we're going to lose and you know, we're all going to be wiped out. If they thought that, they would have turned tail and went back home.
But God says to them, you shall see them again, no more forever.
Self-confidence leads to ruin.
You know, the, the Eddystone Lighthouse is an interesting structure in England. It's off the coast and at certain times of the day, you basically only see the, the lighthouse. It's covered by water. You know, the, the, the water comes up to the base and basically if you step down the door lighthouse right into the water. And then other times when the tide is low, you see more of the land surrounding the lighthouse. And the first builder of the Eddystone Lighthouse. There have been four such erections of this edifice.
The first builder said that there was number safer place in the storm than the Eddystone Lighthouse.
Guess what collapse in the storm? The Eddystone Lighthouse kind of reminds you of that boat called the Titanic. Even God couldn't sink her. The first thing she did was sink. You see, men like to think that they have all their security and safety all bound up. They have planned for every eventuality.
But God is all knowing and you can't outplan God.
God said to these men who thought they were confident, You shall see them again no more forever.
But how many people are competent today in their good works? They're confident that they just are missing some piece of the puzzle, maybe knowledge based, or maybe there's, you know, some New Age doctrine or something like that that they need to come into in order to have the final piece. And they'll be like God themselves and they'll do all these things.
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Because men are always searching for that latest new fad that will lead them to God, that latest thing that will be to their benefit. You know, people say, well, you know, if you just, you know, or think positive, you'll have this. Or you got those false teachers that say, well, God promised you a long life and prosperity and all these things, which is not really promised in the Bible because they twist the scripture. But they they do all these things because it's all man based. It's all.
Centered, it's all How can I lift myself up? How can I get to heaven on my own terms so I can pat myself in the back and say, hey God, I deserve to be here?
But friends, you don't deserve to be in heaven and need to do.
The Bible's clear. There's none good. No, not one. Guess what? No, not one includes you and included many.
You're looking for a loophole, The Bible says Be sure your sin will find you out. No loopholes.
There's no escape. It's important. The man wants to die, but after this, what the judgment?
And so if you think you're going to get away with it, you're going to find out that your self-confidence will need to ruin it always does. Look what happened to Satan. I will send to the heights. I will be like the Most High. Look what happened to him.
He fell because of his eye wills.
George Whitfield one time was preaching and at one point in his message he said the Lord will accept all of the devil's castaways. And there were two ladies, ladies of the evening and the audience in the back and one turned the other. Did you hear that? There's hope for us. We're the devil's castaways and if God will accept them, there's hope for us. Well, the next day George Whitfield was and he didn't know their conversation and what they were thinking and he was meeting with.
Lady Huntington, who was a Christian lady and who often gave money to because she was a rich widow and she all gave money to Christian organizations. She was a big financer of Whitfield and of Wesley too, later on. And she said, George, don't you think you kind of said something wrong yesterday?
And he said, what do you mean?
Well, you said that the Lord will take all the devil's castaways. Don't you think you overstated that? And Whitfield said no. And just at that point, a knock came on the door and the servant went to get it. There was a note there that was for Whitfield. And so they gave the note to Whitfield. While they're having this conversation, did Whitfield overstate that the Lord will accept all the devil's castaways?
And it turned out it was a note from those two women telling Whitfield that they got saved because they realized that if the Lord would accept all the devil's castaways, he would accept them. And Whip Hill said, well, if you think I'll overstay the case, read this note. And so the Lord will accept you, dear friend, but you have to realize that you're a Sinner and you're lost, and there is no way in the no universe that you can never save yourself.
And you're fooling yourself if you think that you can do something good that you can, you know, perform something that you can genuflect or bow or fall some religion.
You're fooling yourself if you think that's going to get you to heaven.
Just as they were fooling themselves thinking, oh, cake run, just the Israelites, we can take care of them.
So self we looked at today could be your last. Opportunities will vanish and then self-confidence leads to ruin. Here's #4 and that is the doom of the Sinner. Sure.
The doom of the Sinner is sure. Notice what Moses said with certainty. Ye shall see them again, no more forever.
He didn't say, well, if all goes right, you won't see it, you won't have any trouble anymore. He didn't say, well, we're hoping and praying that everything will turn out. He said, no, they're going to be a distant memory after today. You're not going to ever see or hear from this army gone.
Moses spoke with certainty because it wasn't Moses words. He wasn't given anybody the latest human philosophy of how to go rich or how to be spiritual or anything like that. He was telling them what God told him to tell.
And so if you stand on the authority of God's Word, you're on the solid ground. But if you're standing on the authority of men's word, you're in the sinking sand. And Moses could say you'll see them again, no more forever. Why? Because he wasn't telling them men's ideas, but God's Word.
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And you see, friends, the Scriptures clear. If you reject God's blessed Son and the wonderful salvation that He provided for you, you're doing certain.
That's not a pleasant subject to talk about, but it's the reality Scripture, and I would be negligent as a gospel creature if I didn't tell you about it, because that is the reality. Hebrews 927 says, And as is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, Jesus said in Luke 13, Three, I tell you, Nay, but except ye repent, ye will all likewise perish.
John 336 says, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.
But notice the rest of the verbs. And he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
You know, there was a clock in Europe and the figure would come out, it was on this kind of runner and it would come out and there being a bell there and it would come down, hit the bell once every hour.
And one of the workmen made a mistake that would have been costly, and in anger, the architect, the designer of the clock, killed the Workman. And of course he sought to.
You know, hide it and get rid of the body and everything so no one found out. But what he didn't know was a piece of that person's skull accidentally gone into the clockwork. So the next time the clock was scheduled to come out on this rails and hit, they only got so far inside. It was the working skull that was preventing going his father. So they sent the architect up, the designer up to figure it out.
And as he was figuring out, he unleashes the thing and the figure advances a little bit more and kills him, just like he killed the other guy.
You sure your sin will find you out, dear friend?
You can take it to the bank, dear friend, that if you reject Christ, you're doing certain.
In fact, let me give you God's guarantee. Turn to Acts chapter 17.
Acts Chapter 17.
God's given you a guarantee that you're going to face judgment, dear friend.
Acts 17 and verse 31.
Because he hath appointed a day into which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained.
Whereof He's given a sure and son to all men. That word assurance means a warranty guarantee. God is guaranteed to you that you will face His judgment.
And that he raised him, Speaking of Jesus from the dead. Now the only way you can escape facing that judgment is you have to be in the one Jesus who bore your punishment on himself. You have to be where the fire has already fallen in Jesus Christ. But if you don't, your judgment is guaranteed by God. And it's not a pleasant one.
And it's not one that you're going to enjoy.
Well, the flip side of the fact that our doom is certain is the reality that the salvation of the believer is sure.
You go, if you look at verse 13, notice how he begins the verse in Exodus 14, verse 13, it says that Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still and what? And see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show you today for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall see them again no more forever. So just like the Duma, the Sinner is certain.
The surety and safety of the of the believers also. That's the wonderful flip side. Yes, there's a guarantee.
That men will face the judgment in their sins if they don't receive Jesus Christ. But there's also wonderful guarantee that God will save every person that is willing to accept His Son. In fact, let's turn to Hebrews Chapter 7.
And verse 25. He was seven. Verse 25.
Hebrews Chapter 7, verse 25. Here's God's guarantee that He will save every person.
That comes to him by faith and truly acknowledges that he cannot save himself, but trusting in the Son, verse 25 says, Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he liveth to make intercession for them. Dear friend, God is able to save to the uttermost, and someone said to the gutter most.
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There's no Sinner that's too great that God cannot say. There's no thing that you've done in your life that you can say, well, my sin is so great, God can't do anything. No, his fresh is good cleanses from sin.
And he is able to save you tonight, dear friend.
One day, Richard Oglesby, the governor of Illinois, wrote to Abraham Lincoln, or.
Telegraphed him a discouraging note and Lincoln wrote back these words. He said Dear **** fearing not stand still. Exodus 1413. Abraham Lincoln.
We need to just trust in that one who's done the work. We need to realize that there is nothing I could do, there is nothing I could ever do to save myself, but that he did it all. And all I have to do is come and trust him that he finished the work, that he hasn't done it.
And my salvation is short, and heaven can be assured for you tonight as if you were already there, if you just come and trust God's precious Son.
That brings us to number six. So we looked at today could be your last. We looked at opportunities could vanish. We looked at self-confidence leads to ruin at the doom of the center assure and the salvation of the believers. Sure. Number six is salvation is of the Lord. Notice that he said in verse 13, see the salvation of the Lord. He didn't say, OK, now you guys got to arm yourselves and be ready. And when God says OK, you're going to go into the battle didn't say that. He just said stand still.
And see the salvation Lord, He didn't say, OK, well, we've got to do this and get ready just in case the enemy escapes and we'll take off the leftovers. No, he said, stand still. There was nothing for them to do but to watch and to trust in God because God was going to do it all. It was by his power. He was the one that was going to finish that work. He was the one that was going to save them.
It wasn't something they had to do. And that's the big thing we need to get out of the human consciousness is that we can do something to get ourselves to heaven 'cause you can't.
It's already been done. God's Son did. You just need to trust Him. You just need to stand still, realize.
The work is finished by him and all I have to do is trust.
And then #7 not only is salvation of the Lord, but they had to trust to see God's salvation. Notice they had to stand still and see they didn't have to work and see they didn't have to do some religious ceremony and see they just had to stand there and watch God do it.
So they had to trust that God was going to do his end of it, because if they had to do something, they would be sunk, because in their human ability they were facing the greatest army of their day, the Egyptian army, and there was nothing, no way they could beat them in their own capabilities.
With the things that they had at their, at their, you know, for their usage, there was no way that they could win naturally.
So they had to trust. They had to realize.
There's nothing in my hands I bring, but simply to thy cross I clean.
Nothing man can do, nothing you can do will ever save your soul.
Because Jesus has done it all.
You know, there was a man who was.
A soldier in Napoleon's army and he lay dying and he asked for Napoleon because he had such confidence in Napoleon and he's there getting operated on. He said please bring Napoleon here. I know he can help me.
And so Napoleon comes in and he says, Napoleon, save me.
But Napoleon had to turn his head in tears because he knew there was nothing he could do. And that's the way men are. They're always trusting in something that can't save them. Dear friends, Jesus Christ can save you to the uttermost. There's no situation, there's life. There's no sin that you committed that his blood cannot cleanse you from.
Stop trusting in those things that can't say. Do trust in the one who can say the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the last thing that I wanted to notice we looked at today could be your last opportunities will vanish. self-confidence leads to ruin the doom of the Sinner share the doom of the Saint or the salvation of the Saint is sure salvations of the Lord and they had to trust to see God's salvation. The last thing is you'll be somewhere forever.
Notice how Exodus 1413 ends. I'm going to read the whole verse, but look at the very last two words. And Moses said of the people, Fear ye not stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show you today for the Egyptians whom he have seen today. Ye shall see them again, no more what forever.
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Forever.
Eternity. Eternity. Where will you spend eternity? This question comes to you and me. Where were you spending eternity? You're going to be someplace forever.
Whether you like it or not, you're going to be someplace forever because the Bible is clear. There are two destinies for men. There is heaven, the place of God's abode where those who have trusted in Christ will go, and there is a place called hell.
A terrible, terrible place.
Where sinners will endure torment for all eternity.
I just want to take a moment.
You know, sometimes when you preach the gospel, you wonder, how can you make hell real to people? How can you make them see how terrible and how awful that place is? I'm going to try. I probably won't succeed, but with God's help, I'm going to try. I just want to give you tonight, real quickly, the ABC's of hell.
And these are three things that if you find yourself apart from Christ and you're dead, this is what you will face. So I'm trying to warn you, trying to get you to understand what your eternity is going to be like if you walk out these doors and reject Jesus Christ.
The first thing I call is Awful Flames turn if you go to Mark Chapter 9.
Mark Chapter 9.
And I really got to move along.
Of course, they'll tell you in Palmyra that I tend to go over, so please don't hold it against me.
Mark Chapter 9.
These are the words of Jesus starting. I'm going to start reading at verse 43, and then I'm at verse 44. Then I'm going to skip down to verse 46 and verse 48, verse 43. And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off, where it is better for thee to enter into life, Maine, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched.
Where their warm dyeth not, and the fire is not quenched.
Verse 46 where their worm dieth non and the fires not quench. Verse 48 where their worm dies not in the fire is not quenched. You see friends, people will try to tell you that Jesus, you know that the things he said about how were just kind of symbolic or whatever, but no, Jesus taught there was literal fire in hell.
You can't deny that it's playing, Jesus said, where the worm dies not and the fire's not quenched when he told the true account of the rich man in Lazarus.
He said the rich man woke up in hell, being in torment, being in flames. Jesus taught there was fire and hell. I heard this account of a young man who told about how his father died.
And it kind of illustrates this idea. There's fire now.
Young man was in the hospital, his dad was just wasting away. He was basically a skeleton of a man and for the large part of the day, his last day, he was in a coma.
And then, for whatever reason, his father.
Became lucid and all he said was he yelled out. He said, son, there's fire in hell.
And he just kept yelling it out. So the young man ran and got the nurses. It took four nurses and a doctor to try to restrain this skinny little guy who was emaciated. Asked for 5 minutes. He kept yelling out, son, there's fire in hell, son, there's fire in hell.
And then he went out to eternity.
Dear friend, Jesus said there's fire in heaven.
There is fine.
Regardless of what the liberal preachers and others say Jesus said were the worm dieth not in the fire is not quite.
This fire now.
The next thing is found in the book of Jude chapter. Well, it's only one chapter, Jude, but Jude verses 11 Through 13.
The Book of Jew.
Notice Jude is talking about.
False teachers here and he says in verse 11 Walt to them, for they have gone the way of king and ran greedily after the Arab balaam for reward. And it perished in the game saying of core. These are spots in your feast of charity when they are feasted with you feeding themselves without fear. Clouds they are without water carried about of wind.
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Trees whose fruit Withers without fruit twice dead, plucked up by the roots.
Raging waves of the sea foaming out their own shame. Wandering stars. Notice the last part of verse 13. To whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
Hell is a place of blackness.
Now you say, well, how can that be? There's fire. If there's fire, isn't there a little bit of light? Well, why do you think firemen have to have lights on their equipment when they go into burning house? Because the smoke and everything, it's difficult to see. They need to take lights with them. And so the person who dies outside of Christ will be in the blackness, still hear the screams of those around them, but they will barely be able to see anybody.
As they for all eternity.
By themselves in that blackness.
Are being tormented.
Jesus said in Matthew 22, he tells the story about those who were invited to the feast and they refused to come. And there's the man without the wedding garment. And the king says in that parable, take him into outer darkness. Why? Because that man without the wedding garments a picture of people that make professions of Christ, and they use the name of Jesus all around, but they don't really have him.
And the king said, Cast him into outer darkness, where there shall be weeping at nationality. Dear friend, how is the place of out of darkness?
Can you imagine?
The horror of being in darkness and being in plane. Think about this. A person, hell is always feeling the pain of the fire, but they're never consumed by it. They feel the agony that comes from the flames licking at themselves, but they're never consumed. They always exist. They'll exist forever.
In that horrible, horrible state.
The last thing of the ABC's of Hell that I'm.
Trying to get across to you dear friend is found in Luke chapter 16.
Luke chapter 16 I alluded to earlier is the.
Parable. Well, not excuse me, I'm wrong. Not parable, but the account is an actual historical account. Because parables don't have people's names in them. Parables are generalities. Jesus is Speaking of specific people.
And so it's not a parable. I misspoke.
It's an actual count of two men who die and go to their eternal destiny.
Look at you world at.
22.
Well, excuse me in well I'll read the end of verse 22 where it speaks about the rich man says the rich man also died and was buried. And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus and his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.
Notice what Abraham says to him.
But Abraham said verse 25 Son, remember.
Son, remember that thou and thy lifetime receiveth thy good things, like lies, Lazarus, evil things. But now he is comforted and thou are tormented. I would suggest to you that.
The C and the ABC's of hell is comfortless memory. Just think about this man forever is going to remember. Anytime somebody told him about God, about Christ, think of it, a person hell is going to remember. That night I sat at the gospel meeting and the preacher tried to preach his heart out that there's a hell and there's flames and you could be there forever. And I just said forget about that. That's foolishness. And I walked on. You'll remember that.
Can help.
You remember that when you laughed at a Christian or mocked them because they trusted in Christ, You'll remember that.
Son, remember. I don't know what's worse to be honest, the flames, the darkness, or the fact that you'll remember.
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There was a man in the same asylum.
And there was a doctor that was visiting this, what they call him Asam today, but this was years ago and he was in this asylum. And all this man would do is he would walk around like this, too late, too late, too late, too late. He would sit in his chair and he would rock back and forth too late, too late, too late.
And the doctor said, what's going on with that man? All he does. Too late, too late, too late.
And the other doctor said, well, it's a rather tragic story. This man was a man who tended the railway. And one day there was a train on the siding that was waiting for the express to go through. And the man's job was to go out and pull the switch, which would shunt the express around the train that was waiting on the side of him. But the man walked out one day, that day, fateful day, and he saw beautiful flowers. And he got engrossed in the beautiful flowers and all of a sudden, Choo, Choo.
He hears the siren. He's running desperately to get to the switch. But before he got there, the train went right into the train that was sitting on this song. And he saw the carnage and he saw the screams of the people. And he said ever since then, all he's ever said was too late. Too late, dear friend, just think people in hell are saying too late. I heard about Christ. I heard how he died for me. I heard how he loved me, but it's too late.
Dear friends, is it going to be too late for you because you rejected God's Son?
OK.
I don't know how else to get it across, my dear friend.
I don't know how to let you know the horribleness.
What you have before you, if you if you walk out of this place and go off and do you turn without God's Son?
I wish you could make it more real to you.
I wish you could realize that just like these individuals.
They ended up somewhere forever, and it wasn't the place they wanted to be forever, I guarantee you that.
And if you end up in this place that we just described in a short little way, it's not a place you're going to want to be forever either.
But the question is.
What will you do with God's Son?
I'll read you a little poem and then I'll close in the word of prayer and the meeting will be over.
Homes called the Valley Decision. Dear friend, each of us, if you're not saved, you're in the Valley of Decision right now. I stood at the crossroads amazed to see the few on the heaven bound way while the Broad Rd. thronged with the motley crowd who lived only for today.
For the future, it seemed they had never a thought or lay at the journey's end. And I heard, as it were, Wisdom's warning voice. Be wise, less to hell you descend.
Today thou livest, yet today turn thee to God.
For air tomorrow comes, thou mayest be with the dead.
Today's your decision day.
Try to lay the case before you that you're going to be somewhere forever. And like the song sung that we sung earlier, whosoever cometh must not delay. Now the doors open. Enter while you may. I'm going to close down the word of prayer and the meeting will be over.
We trust that God will use what was given to the salvation of some poor souls their Father. We thank you this evening.
For this opportunity that we have.
To share that wonderful message of a savior named Jesus.
His great love for the lost.
And his wondrous dying on the tree, and the glorious salvation that he provided.
And we pray, Father, if there's someone in this room this evening.
That hasn't decided for eternity.
May they enter without delay, may they decide tonight, may they understand the horrible danger that they're in and that today is the day that has been set before them to make that choice.
And may they come to Christ, and we just pray that whatever results it may be from this time that we've had together, that they would redound to the honor and growing praise of that precious one, the Lord Jesus Christ. For it's in his name that we pray, Amen.